POOR'S PAY REIGNED IN

There were muted celebrations from cleaners at Buckingham Palace last week as they won a pay rise from £6.45 to the princely sum of £7.50 per hour – still short of the London Living Wage of £8.30 they had been campaigning for.

Sadly Her Majesty’s altruism has its limits. On the day the pay rise was announced, hospitality contractor ‘Off To Work’ was offering shifts for a “wonderful team” to work at Windsor Castle for £6.81 per hour. Part of Off To Work’s “company vision” is that people “should feel like kings for one small moment” – presumably it wasn’t referring to its staff.

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A brief history of the Dragon Festival and Cigarrones travellers site, southern Spain.

The Cigarrones travellers’ site is one of several communities which have sprung up near Orgiva in Andalucía, Spain, in recent decades. Coming to the southern tip of Europe to escape the repression against travellers in Britain and elsewhere, they have carved out a life of avin’ it autonomous anarchy – despite increasing attention from tinpot local authorities who act like Franco is still in. Since 1997 the site has held the annual Dragon Festival - now arguably one of the most significant free festivals in Europe – but this is also under attack. Here is a brief history written by a resident of Cigarrones: